{精品}英美文学选读 复习资料 重点知识点

一、名词解释

1. Meter:

Meter is the measured arrangement of words in the poetry, the rhythmic pattern of a stanza, determined by the kind and number of lines. It’s the beat of the poem and meter is an organized way to arrange unstressed and stressed syllables. The length of lines is described by the number of repeated meters in the line.

1 meter,

2 dimeter,

3 trimeter,

4 tetrameter,

5 pentameter,

6 hexameter,

7 heptameter,

8 octameter

2. Stressed pattern:

The most common stressed pattern in English is the iamb, which consists of 2 syllables and the 2nd one of which is accented. Another common stressed pattern is trochee (also 2 syllables, but with the 1st accented).

Iamb: unstressed/ stressed

Trochee: stressed/ unstressed

Anapest: unstressed/ unstressed/ stressed

Dactyl: stressed/ unstressed/ unstressed

• A line with three iambic feet is known as iambic trimester.

• A line with six dactylic feet is known as dactylic hexamete r.

•Shakespeare is famous for his use of the iambic pentameter.

3. Rhyme:

Rhyme is when the endings of the words sound the same.

4. Rhyme Scheme:

Rhyme Scheme is the pattern of rhyming word at the end of each line.

Not all poetry has rhyme scheme. Poems of more than one stanza often repeat the same rhyme scheme in each stanza.

5. Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of the same sounds or the same kinds of sound at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables. Modern alliteration is predominantly consonantal.

6. Assonance: 谐音，类韵

Assonance is the relatively close succession of the same or similar vowel sounds, but with different consonants and it’s a kind of vowel rhyme.

7. Consonance:尾韵

Consonance is the relatively close succession of the same end consonants with different vowel sounds and it’s a kind of consonant rhyme.

8. Repetition:

Repetition is the repeating of a sound, word, or phrase for emphasis.

10. Meaning devices:

Diction is the writer’s choice of words. The words that a writer chooses to use may carry both denotative and connotative meanings. Denotative is the explicit definition as listed in a dictionary, while connotative is the association or set of associations that a word usually brings to mind.

11. Figurative language:

Figurative language is any language that goes beyond the literal meaning of words in order to furnish new effects or f resh insights into an idea or a subject.Whenever you describe sth.by comparing it with sth. else, you’re using figurative language.

•Simile:

A simile is a figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared,

often in a phrase introd uces by “like” or “as”.

•Metaphor:

A metaphor is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between

two unlike things that actually have sth. important in common.

•Symbol:

Symbol is an image that comes to stand for sth. (often an idea) beyond itself. •Pun:

A pun occurs when a word is used in such a way as to have more than one meaning and in this way. It’s a kind of instant metaphor.

•Imagery:

Imagery is an appeal to the senses. The poet describes sth. to help you see, hear, smell, taste or touch the topic of the poem. It’s similar to descriptive writing only in poetry form.

•Personification:

Personification is a figure of speech, which gives the qualities of a person to an animal, an object or an idea. It’s a comparison, which the author uses to show sth.

in an entirely new light, to communicate a certain feeling or attitude towards it and to control the way a reader perceives it.

•Paradox:

Paradox is a statement that on the surface seems to contradict itself and doesn’t make sense, but that at another level expresses a truth.

12. English Romanticism

<1>. It prevailed in English during the period of 1798—1832. The publication of Lyrical Ballads in 1798 marked its beginning and the death of Water Scott in 1832 marked its ending.

<2>. Highlights of English Romanticism

Imagination is the supreme faculty of the mind

Idealization of Nature: that Nature never did betray the heart that loved her

Individualism: man is an individual in a solitary state; the exploration and evaluation of the inner self.

13. Point of view:

Point of view is the vantage point from which a story is told.

<1>. The First Person Point of View:

A character from the story is telling the story; uses pronouns “he”, “she”, “they”.

In the first-person point of view, the narrator is a character in the story; knows and can tell only what he or she thinks and feels; may be reliable and trustworthy or may be an unreliable narrator.

<2>. Types of Third-Person Point of View:

Third-person limited: the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings on only ONE

character in a story.

Third-person omniscient: the narrator knows the thoughts and feeling of ALL the characters in a story.

•Third-Person-Limited Point of View:

In Third-person-limited point of view, the narrator plays no part in the story; he knows and can tell what a single character is thinking and feeling.

•Omniscient point of view:

In the omniscient point of view, the all-knowing narrator plays no part in the story;

knows and can tell what any character is thinking and feeling; knows what is happening in all of the story’s settings.

14. Setting

Setting generally provides the time and place of a story;

Setting can also include the mood of the time period, situation and event;

Setting can be the social, political, environmental or emotional climate;

Setting can also include the emotional state of a character.

15. Character

The term character refers to a person or an animal in a story, play or other literary work. Characterization is the way a writer reveals the personality of a character.

•The protagonist is the main character in a story and the story often revolves around this character.

•The antagonist is the force that or character who opposes the protagonist. •Minor characters are present, generally named and have a role that in some way was highlights the protagonist.

16. Theme

Theme is the general idea or insight about life that a work of literature reveals.

Theme is a main idea or strong message tied to life.

Theme threads itself through a story, chapter or scene to make a point about life, society or human nature.

Theme is typically implied rather than explicit. The reader has to think about it.

Generally, there’s one major theme in a piece of literature. Add itional themes can often be found in a piece of literature.

17. Parts of a plot

Plot is the sequence of events that happen in a story. Plot provides a story with structure, like a map of a story.

•Exposition: introduction; This usually occurs at the beginning of a short story.

Here the characters are introduced. We also learn about the setting of the story.

Most importantly, we are introduced to the main conflict (problem).

•Rising action: events that occur as result of central conflict

This part of the story begins to develop the conflicts. A building of interest or suspense occurs and leads to the climax. Complication arises.

•Climax: highest point of interest or suspense of a story

This is the turning point of the story. Usually the main character comes face with

a conflict. The main character will change in some way and this is themost

intense moment.

•Falling action: tension eases; events show the results of how the main character begins to resolve the conflict.

It’s the action that follows the climax a nd ultimately leads to the resolution. •Resolution: the conclusion; all loose ends are tied up; the conflict is solved Either the character defeats the problem, learns to live with the problem or the problem defeats the character.

18. Conflict

Conflict is a problem that must be solved; it’s an issue between the protagonist and antagonist forces. It forms the basis of the plot and conflict can be external or internal. External conflict: exists when a character struggles against some outside force such as another character, group, society, nature, fate or a nonhuman obstacle.

E.g. <1>. Man vs. Man is the conflict of one person against another person.

<2>. Man vs. Nature is the conflict a person encounters with the forces of nature, and shows how insignificant one person can be when compared to the cosmic scheme of things

<3>. Man vs. Society is the conflict of a person/ people and the views of society. Prejudice/Racism is a good example.

Internal conflict exits within the mind of a character who is torn between different courses of action. E.g. Man vs. Himself is internal conflict. It’s those conflicts an individual has with his conscience.

19. Special Techniques used in a Story

<1>. Suspense: excitement, tension, curiosity

<2>. Foreshadowing: hint or clue about what will happen in story

<3>. Flashback: interrupts the normal sequence of events to tell about something that happened in the past

<4>. Symbolism: use of specific objects or images to represent ideas

<5>. Personification: when you make a thing, idea or animal do something only humans do

<6>. Surprise Ending: conclusion that reader does not expect

二、文学作品节选

承上启下a connecting link between the preceding and the following

1. A Rose for Emily --- William Faulkner

The narration shifts in time frequently and gives out bits of information about the main character Miss Emily in such a way that the reader has to piece them together by himself.

Para.1 It tells us who is the main character and who is telling the story. The author chooses “we”, the people of the town, as the collective narrator. “We” represents the gossip of the town, they are observers of the events. But this collective narrator does not know everything. None of “us” have benn inside Miss Emily’s house until her death.

•So inevitably there are gaps in the narration that are bound to cause confusion on the part of the readers or the listener of the story. That

leaves a lot of room for reader participation.

Para. 2 This paragraph provides details about the setting of the story --- the place and the time. From the descriptions of the appearance of Miss Emily’s house we learn something about her family and her character, and from the visible changes on the streets over the years we get to know something about the historical and social changes that were taking place then.

Part 2.In this part time is shifted back to thirty years before the visit of the deputation. Three things took place during this period of time. There was a bad smell coming from Miss Emily’s house. Two years before that her father dies, and Emily behaved rather strangely by refusing to let the townspeople bury him. A short time after that she had a sweetheart, whom the townspeople believed deserted her.

2. A Tale of Two Cities --- Charles Dickens

antithesis对照/对仗，anaphora首语重复法，repetition, juxtaposition并列，oxymoron 矛盾

3.Romeo and Juliet --- William Shakespeare

4.Persuasion --- Jane Austen

三、诗歌欣赏

1. A Red Red Rose --- Robert Burns

①A Red Red Rose is a ballad that written by Robert Burns.

②It consists of 4 quatrains (four-line stanzas), in iambic tetrameter in first and

third lines, and iambic trimetersecond and fourth lines. The rhyme scheme is

abcb.

③The poem focuses on the theme of love. A man professes his true love for his

beloved girl.

④In the first stanzathe author describes her pretty appearance and praise he fine

disposition. And he addresses the young lady as bonnie in second stanzas. He

pledges his eternal and faithful love in the next 3 stanzas from 3 dimensions:

Depth, length and distance.The man vows to love her however far he may go.

⑤There are four main figurative languages used in the poetry.

In the first place, the author compares his beloved girl to a red rose which has recently blossomed in June by using simile. And he compares her to melody

which is the beauty lives on abstraction. Those make the poetry vivid and live.

In the second place, he uses hyperbole in the sentence “Till a’ the seas gang dry” to show that all is possible.

Furthermore, the author repeat the sentence “Till a’ the seas gang dry” to show the permanent love. The repetition not only emphasizes his love but also

addsome musicality to the poetry.

In addition, the author uses symbol to expresses his faithful love. Rose

symbolizes passionate love, and rock symbolizes staunch love, sands symbolizes

eternal love, seas symbolizes deep love.

2.I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud --- William Wordsworth

①I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud is a lyric poem written byWilliam Wordsworth.

②This poem presents the deep feelings and emotions of the poet rather than

telling a story or presenting a witty observation.

③It consists of 4 six-line stanzas, in iambic tetrameter and an ABABCC rhyme

scheme.

④Figurative language:

Using personification, the author compares the cloud to a lonely human.

By using simile, there is the c omparison of the speaker’s solitariness to that of a

cloud.

Alliteration: lonely as a cloud(line 1)

⑤Diction&Tone：Diction can be assumed as indifferent or melancholy in the first

two lines. The speaker is comparing himself to a cloud that floats carelessly and

yet feels distant or separated from the world beneath him

By the third line“when all at once I saw a crowd” the poem shifts into a

blithe/joyful attitude, an interest towards the gorgeous scene which he describes

and keeps throughout the poem.

-Fluttering/dancing/shine/twinkle/sprightly/dance/glee/gay/jocund/wealth/bliss

/ pleasure fills

⑥Analysis ：

In the first stanzas, Wordsworth describes the scene when we wanders “as lonely as a cloud”.

He compares himself to a single cloud that is floating over the valleys and the hills.

The speaker feels distant and seperated from the world below. The poet says that

he is like a cloud. That’s a simile.

Then he sees a “crowd” of golden daffodils which are under the trees and beside a

lake and are “fluttering and dancing in the breeze”. He uses calm and soft words.

In the second stanza, the speaker makes a connection with the daffodils and the stars. This stanza is still full of imagery. He compares the daffodils to the shining

stars that sparkle in the Milky Way as the number of daffodils are near the river

seem to be thousands in number.

In the third stanza, he again compares the waves of the lake to the waves of daffodils. He decides that even though the lake is “sparkling”, the daffodils win because they have more “glee.” He felt so happy and expressed his feeling as gay in such a jocund company. He looked at the scene for a long time ,but while he was there, he couldn’t understand what he had gained from his experience. The repetition of “gaze” tells us that he kept looking at the flowers for a long time.

In the last stanza, he describes how that scene affected him because whenever he is at home and on his own “in the bliss of solitude,” he remembers the flowers that fills him with pleasure and his heart “dances with the daffodils”. Again the use of words like “bliss” show his happiness each time the memory of tho se flowers and the way they

danced that day comes back to him.

⑦This is a beautiful but simple poem about the beauty of nature and how inspiring it can be. This poem was written so that you can visualize and image how it would look in your perspective. In most of this poem, he gave the flowers a human quality, like dancing. There are rhyming words at the end of every alternate line of the poem giving it both continuity and a sense of rhythm.

3.Break, Break, Break --- Alfred Tennyson

①Break, Break, Break isa lyric poem thatwritten by Alfred Tennyson.

②The poem contains four quatrains with combined iambic and anapestic. Most

lines have three feet and some four. The rhyme scheme is abcb.

③This poem expresses Tennyson’s grief after his friend died, the preciousness of

youth and indifference of nature. Namely, the world continues to be busy and

beautiful, but the happy moments of one’s life never stay.

④Hallam died of a stroke in 1833 when he was only 22. Nature, of course, does

not stop to mourn the loss of anyone. Cold and indifferent, it carries on, the

waves of the ocean breaking against rocks along the seashore without pausing

even for a moment. The rest of the world carries on as well: the fisherman's boy

happily playing with his sister, the sailor merrily singing, the ship busily plying

the waters of commerce. Downcast, isolated by his grief, the narrator yearns to

touch the hand of his friend once more, to hear the sound of his voice. But, no,

Hallam is gone forever; his "tender grace" will never again return.

⑤The author use repetition in the title and the first line to emphasizes that the

ocean waves are going to keep breaking.

Apostrophe (Lines 1 and 2): The narrator addresses the sea.

Personification and metaphor also occur in Lines 1 and 2, for

the poet regards the sea as a human being.

Alliteration (Line 8): boat on the bay

(Lines 9-12): Stanza 3 uses this figure of speech as follows:

And the stately ships go on

To their haven under the hill;

But O for the touch of a vanished hand,

And the sound of a voice that is still!

Alliteration (Line 15): day that is dead

Repetend: Line 13 repeats Line 1; Line 7 repeats the first two

words of Line 5.

Paradox: Touch of a vanished hand (Line 11), sound of a voice

that is still (Line 12).

4.Because I Could Not Stop for Death --- Emily Dickinson

①Because I Could Not Stop for Death is written by Emily Dickinson.

②It consists of 6 four-line stanzas, in iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter. The

rhyme is not strict.

③The poem focuses on the theme of death and immortality. The author’s puzzling

over death leading to https://www.360docs.net/doc/a219201811.html,ly, the arrival of death is not unpleasant.

Death means eternity.

④The author use simple and plain word to describe the world of living, and more

solemn and serious words to describe death and immortality.

⑤In the first stanza is an angel of death, in the image of a kind person comes in a

carriage for the sake of immortality and the poet. This stanza reveals Emily’s calm acceptable of death. Death is seen as kind and polite. The journey to her grave begins when death comes calling.

In the second stanza, the drive symbolizes her physical leaving life. He drives her slowly, which could be an expression of his consideration for her. Having relinquished her labor and leisure for the ride, she gives death her respect a full attention.

In the third stanza, using metaphor, Dickinson speaks about the different stages of her life. School and children at recess symbolizes her childhood. Gazing grain symbolizes her adulthood. The setting sun represents her final years and decent into death. And the atmosphere surrounding the ride begin to change when we see the setting sun.

In fourth stanza, it is a shift that makes her getting closer to the death.

In fifth stanza, she saw a house with small size, scarcely visible cornice in the ground, which was actually house of the death. The word “house” is used as a euphemism for a grave to indicate how comfortable she feels about death.

In the last stanza, she finally realized that she had been dead and also she had already got eternity. The word “eternity” is the echo of the word “immortality ”

in first stanza.

⑥Tone: In the first place, the tone is light and pleasant, and then turns to serious.

In final, it is meditative.

5.Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening --- Robert Frost

①Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening iswritten by Robert Frost

②It consists of 4 four-line stanzas, in iambic tetrameter and

anAABA-BBCB-CCDC-DDDDrhyme scheme.

③As a traveler, the poet is fascinated by the beautiful scene in the woods. He stops

to enjoy it, but his mind urges him to go on, because there is still a long way ahead of him, an unfinished duty waiting for him. This poem stresses a central conflict between man's enjoyment of natural beauty and his responsibility in society.

④The first stanza tells us that the man is stopping in front of the woods owned by

another person in the village--the village and the owner can both represent human society. Only the man is watching the woods being filled up with snow.

The woods and snow can both hint at natural occurrences.

The second stanza says the location is far from civilization (farmhouse), light (darkest evening) and warmth (frozen lake) that even the horse would think the man is queer to stop there.

In the third stanza, there is the climax of the whole poem. The man is woken up by his horse and steps out of fantasy but he finds himself in a

contradiction between reality and fantasy.

The last stanza reveals the woods’ attractiontowards the man as it is “lovely, dark and deep”. It also shows the man’s determination to break away from such

aesthetic temptation because he has to take on worldly burdens and

responsibilities (“promises”).

⑥There are four main figurative languages used in the poetry.

In the first place, the author uses personification in the sentences “My little horse must think it queer” and “to ask if there is some mistake”.

In the second place, there is the alliteration in words “sound”and “sleep”, ”dark” and “deep”

Furthermore, the author repeat the sentence “and miles to go before I sleep”. The superficial meaning is that there is still a long distance before the

speaker. But there is an implied meaning is that there are still numerous

responsibilities before the speaker’s life comes to an end. The repetition also

adds some musicality to the poetry.

In addition, the author uses images in many lines. For example, the woods symbolizes the mystery of nature; the temptations in our life. The snow

symbolizes something of purity. Village & He (the owner of the

woods)—Human world & society

Promises--The unavoidable responsibilities & obligations

Miles--Long distance; the heavy duty of life

Sleep--Rest during night; the end of life (death)

I am on my way--The journey of life

四、散文

1.Letter to Lord Chesterfield --- Samuel Johnson

February 7th, 1755

My Lord,

I have been lately informed, by the proprietor经营者ofthe World,that two Papers两篇文章, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the Public, were written by your Lordship阁下. To be so distinguished, is an honour受到如此破格的垂青，是一份荣耀, which, being very little accustomed to favors from the Great很不习惯来自大人物的褒奖, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge用什么话来表达感激之情.

When, upon some slight encouragement, I first visited your Lordship, I was overpowered深受感动, like the rest of Mankind其他人, by the enchantment of your address您富有魅力的言辞; and could not forbear to wish 奢望that I might boast夸口说myself Le vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre世界征服者的征服者, that I might obtain that regard 受到重视for which I saw the world contending争先，奋斗的; but I found my attendance拜访so little encouraged, that neither pride nor modesty谦逊would suffer me to continue it使我能够继续忍受下去. When I had once addressed your Lordship in public 当众向大人致意, I had exhausted all the art of pleasing which a retired and uncourtly scholar can possess我用尽了一个性情懒散，不善逢迎的书生所持有的所有手段以博取您欢心. I had done all that I could; and no Man is well pleased 高兴的to have his all neglected

他的一切努力被忽视, be it ever so little无论多么微不足道.

Seven years, My Lord, have now past已经过去七年了, since I waited in your outward Rooms, or was repulsed from your Door被拒之于门外; during which time I have been pushing on my work through difficulties在困难中推进我的工作, of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it, at last, to the verge of Publication快要出版了, without one Act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favor. 没有的到一点帮助，没有得到一句鼓励，没有看到一个笑脸支持Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a Patron before我不曾指望能有这样的待遇，因为我此前从未有权贵提携.

The Shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a Native of the Rocks.维吉尔笔下的牧童最后终于和爱神相识，这才发现所谓爱神只不过是岩穴土人而已。

[Is not a Patron, My Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a Man struggling for Life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help. 落水者在水中挣扎时，他袖手旁观；落水者抵达岸边时他伸手假借帮助实则阻碍，这样的人堪称恩人吗？The notice which you have been pleased to take of my Labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it.您居然屈尊关注起我的工作来了，如果这种关注来得更早些，就是十分善意的了；可惜您的关注未免为时过晚，我已心灰意冷，难能消受；我已孤身一人，无法与人分享；我已功成名就，无需关注。I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received, 在没有得到任何恩惠时，不表达感激之情这不该算是无礼吧？or to be unwilling that the Public should consider me as owing that to a Patron, which Providence has enabled me to do for myself.既然是上帝助我独自成功，我自然不愿让公众产生错觉，似乎我曾受惠于某一赞助人。] Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to any Favourer of Learning, I shall not be disappointed though I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less; or I have been long wakened from that Dream of hope, in which I once boasted myself with so much exultation, My Lord,

我已经在根本没有所谓学术赞助人赞助的情况下使自己的工作完成到目前这个地步，那么，尽管我将要在更艰难无助的情况下——假如还有可能更艰难无助的话——完成全稿，我也绝不会感到沮丧。因为我已经早就从那个赞助的美梦里幡然猛醒；曾几何时，我还在那梦中得意非凡地自诩是

Your Lordship’s Most Hum ble,

most Obedient Servant,

Sam. Johnson

大人您门下最卑微

最驯顺的仆人

塞缪尔·约翰逊

2. How to grow old --- Bertrand Russell

In spite of the title, this article will really be on how not to grow old, which, at my time of life, is a much more important subject. My first advice would be to choose your ancestors carefully. Although both my parents died young, I have done well in this respect as regards my other ancestors. My maternal grandfather, it is true, was cut off in the flower of his youth

at the age of sixty-seven, but my other three grandparents all lived to be over eighty. Of remoter遥远的ancestors I can only discover one who did not live to a great age, and he died of a disease which is now rare, namely, having his head cut off. 虽然有这样一个标题，这篇文章真正要谈的却是怎样才能不老。在我这个年纪，这实在是一个至关重要的问题。我的第一个忠告是，要仔细选择你的祖先。尽管我的双亲皆属早逝，但是考虑到我的其他祖先，我的选择还是很不错的。是的，我的外祖父六十七岁时去世，正值盛年，可是另外三位祖父辈的亲人都活到八十岁以上。至于稍远些的亲戚，我只发现一位没能长寿的，他死于一种现已罕见的病症：被杀头。

A great grandmother of mine, who was a friend of Gibbon, lived to the age of ninety-two, and to her last day remained a terror to all her descendants. My maternal grandmother, after having nine children who survived, one who died in infancy, and many miscarriages, as soon as she became a widow, devoted herself to woman’s hi gher education. She was one of the founders of Girton College, and worked hard at opening the medical profession to women. She used to relate how she met in Italy an elderly gentleman who was looking very sad. She inquired the cause of his melancholy and he said that he had just parted from his two grandchildren. “Good gracious”, she exclaimed, “I have seventy-two grandchildren, and if I were sad each time I parted from one of them, I should have a dismal existence!” “Madre snaturale,” he replied. But speak ing as one of the seventy-two, I prefer her recipe. After the age of eighty she found she had some difficulty in getting to sleep, so she habitually spent the hours from midnight to 3 a.m. in reading popular science. I do not believe that she ever had time to notice that she was growing old. This, I think, is proper recipe for remaining young. If you have wide and keen interests and activities in which you can still be effective, you will have no reason to think about the merely statistical fact of the number of years you have already lived, still less of the probable brevity of you future. 我的一位曾祖母是吉本的朋友，她活到九十二岁高龄，一直到死，她始终是让子孙们全都感到敬畏的人。我的外祖母，一辈子生了十个孩子，活了九个，还有一个早年夭折，此外还有过多次流产。可是守寡以后，她马上就致力于妇女的高等教育事业。她是格顿学院的创办人之一，力图使妇女进入医疗行业。她总好讲起她在意大利遇到过的一位面容悲哀的老年绅士。她询问他忧郁的缘故，他说他刚刚同两个孙儿女分手。“天哪！”她叫道，“我有七十二个孙儿孙女，如果我每次分手就要悲伤不已，那我早就没法活了！”“奇怪的母亲。”他回答说。但是，作为她的七十二个孙儿孙女的一员，我却要说我更喜欢她的见地。上了八十岁，她开始感到有些难以入睡，她便经常在午夜时分至凌晨三时这段时间里阅读科普方面的书籍。我想她根本就没有功夫去留意她在衰老。我认为，这就是保持年轻的最佳方法。如果你的兴趣和活动既广泛又浓烈，而且你又能从中感到自己仍然精力旺盛，那么你就不必去考虑你已经活了多少年这种纯粹的统计学情况，更不必去考虑你那也许不很长久的未来。

As regards health I have nothing useful to say since I have little experience of illness. I eat and drink whatever I like, and sleep when I cannot keep awake. I never do anything whatever on the ground that it is good for health, though in actual fact the things I like doing are mostly wholesome. 至于健康，由于我这一生几乎从未患过病，也就没有什么有益的忠告。我吃喝均随心所欲，醒不了的时候就睡觉。我做事情从不以它是否有益健康为依据，尽管实际上我喜欢做的事情通常都是有益健康的。

Psychologically there are two dangers to be guarded against in old age. One of these is undue absorption in the past. It does not do to live in memories, in regrets for the good old

days, or in sadness about friends who are dead. One’s thoughts must be directed to the future and to things about which there is something to be done. This is not always easy: one’s own past is gradually increasing weight. It is easy to think to oneself that one’s emotions used to be more vivid than they are, and one’s mind keener. If this is true it should be forgotten, and if it is forgotten it will probably not be true. 从心理角度讲，老年需防止两种危险。一是过分沉湎于往事。人不能生活在回忆当中，不能生活在对美好往昔的怀念或对去世的友人的哀念之中。一个人应当把心思放在未来，放到需要自己去做点什么的事情上。要做到这一点并非轻而易举，往事的影响总是在不断增加。人们总好认为自己过去的情感要比现在强烈得多，头脑也比现在敏锐。假如真的如此，就该忘掉它；而如果可以忘掉它，那你自以为是的情况就可能并不是真的。

The other thing to be avoided is clinging to youth in the hope of sucking vigor from its vitality. When your children are grown up they want to live their own lives, and if you continue to be as interested in them as you were when they were young, you are likely to become a burden to them, unless they are unusually callous. I do not mean that one should be without interest in them, but one’s interest should be contemplative and, if possible, philanthropic, but not unduly emotional. Animals become indifferent to their young as soon as their young can look after themselves, but human beings, owing to the length of infancy, find this difficult.

另一件应当避免的事是依恋年轻人，期望从他们的勃勃生气中获取力量。子女们长大成人以后，都想按照自己的意愿生活。如果你还想象她们年幼时那样关心他们，你就会成为他们的包袱，除非她们是异常迟钝的人。我不是说不应该关心子女，而是说这种关心应该是含蓄的，假如可能的话，还应是宽厚的，而不应该过分地感情用事。动物的幼子一旦自立，大动物就不再关心它们了。人类则因其幼年时期较长而难于做到这一点。

I think that a successful old age is easiest for those who have strong impersonal interests involving appropriate activities. It is in this sphere that long experience is really fruitful, and it is in this sphere that the wisdom born of experience can be exercised without being oppressive. It is no use telling grown-up children not to make mistakes, both because they will not believe you, and because mistakes are an essential part of education. But if you are one of those who are incapable of impersonal interests, you may find that your life will be empty unless you concern yourself with you children and grandchildren. In that case you must realize that while you can still render them material services, such as making them an allowance or knitting them jumpers, you must not expect that they will enjoy your company. 我认为，对于那些具有强烈的爱好，其活动又都恰当适宜、并且不受个人情感影响的人们，成功地度过老年决非难事。只有在这个范围里，长寿才真正有益；只有在这个范围里，源于经验的智慧才能得到运用而不令人感到压抑。告诫已经成人的孩子别犯错误是没有用处的，因为一来他们不会相信你，二来错误原本就是教育所必不可少的要素之一。但是，如果你是那种受个人情感支配的人，你就会感到，不把心思都放在子女和孙儿女身上，你就会觉得生活很空虚。假如事实确是如此，那么你必须明白，虽然你还能为他们提供物质上的帮助，比如支援他们一笔钱或者为他们编织毛线外套的时候，决不要期望他们会因为你的陪伴而感到快乐。

Some old people are oppressed by the fear of death. In the young there is a justification for this feeling. Young men who have reason to fear that they will be killed in battle may justifiably feel bitter in the thought that they have been cheated of the best things that life has to offer. But in an old man who has known human joys and sorrows, and has achieved whatever work it was in him to do, the fear of death is somewhat abject and ignoble. The

best way to overcome it – so at least it seems to me – is to make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river – small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being. The man who, in old age, can see his life in this way, will not suffer from the fear of death, since the things he cares for will continue. And if, with the decay of vitality, weariness increases, the thought of rest will not be unwelcome. I should wish to die while still at work, knowing that others will carry on what I can no longer do and content in the thought that what was possible has been done.

有些老人因害怕死亡而苦恼。年轻人害怕死亡是可以理解的。有些年轻人担心他们会在战斗中丧身。一想到会失去生活能够给予他们的种种美好事务，他们就感到痛苦。这种担心并不是无缘无故的，也是情有可原的。但是，对于一位经历了人世的悲欢、履行了个人职责的老人，害怕死亡就有些可怜且可耻了。至少在我看来，克服这种恐惧的最佳方法是逐渐扩大你的兴趣，使之逐渐超越自我，直至包围自我的壁垒一点一点退却，而你的生命一步步与宇宙生命融合为一。每一个人个体的存在都应该像一条河流----开始是细小的，夹在狭窄的两岸之间，在岩石和瀑布间激荡、跳跃。渐渐地，河道变宽，河岸后退，河水平稳流淌。最后，不经意间悄然融入海洋，毫无痛苦地摆脱了个体的存在。一个人的晚年如能这样看待自己的生命，将不会感到死亡的恐惧，因为他所珍爱的一切都将延续下去。而且，如果随着精力的衰退，疲倦之感日渐增加，长眠并非是不受欢迎的念头。我希望在工作之时死去，我明白他人将继续我所未竟的事业，同时为我已经做了力所能及的事释然欣慰。

3. My wood --- Edward Morgan Foster

①A few years ago I wrote a book which dealt in part with the difficulties of the English in India. Feeling that they would have had no difficulties in India themselves, the Americans read the book freely. The more they read it the better it made them feel, and a check to the author was the result. I bought a wood with the check. It is not a large wood--it contains scarcely any trees, and it is intersected, blast it, by a public foot-path. Still, it is the first property that I have owned, so it is right that other people should participate in my shame, and should ask themselves, in accents that will vary in horror, this very important question: What is the effect of property upon the character? Don't let's touch economics; the effect of private ownership upon the community as a whole is another question--a more important question, perhapѕ, but another one. Let's keep to psychology. If you own things, what's their effect on you? What's the effect on me of my wood?

几年前我写了一本书，其中一部分谈到英国人在印度所遭的困境。美国人觉得自己若在印度不会如此窘迫，读该书时便无拘无束，他们越读越自在，其结果，是让书的作者赚了一张支票。我用这支票买下一片树林，林子不大，几乎没有什么树，还有一条该死的公共小道从中横穿而过。但这是我拥有的第一份财产，因而如果别人和我一样感到遗憾，那是很正常的事。他们因恐怖而生变的语调，会对自己提出这样一个重要问题：财产对人的性格会起什么样的影响？我们这里不探讨经济学，私人财产对整个社区的影响，完全是另外一个问题------也许是个更重要的问题，我们只是就财产从心理方面进行探讨，你所拥有的东西会对你产生什么影响？我的树林又怎么影响了我呢？

②In the first place, it makeѕ me feel heavy. Property does have this effect. Property produceѕ men of weight, and it was a man of weight who failed to get into the Kingdom of Heaven. He was not wicked, that unfortunate millionaire in the parable, he was only stout; he stuck out in front, not to mention behind, and as he wedged himself this way and that in the crystalline entrance and bruised his well-fed flanks, he saw beneath him a comparatively slim camel passing through the eye of a needle and being woven into the robe of God. The Gospels all through couple stoutness and slowness. They point out what is perfectly obvious, yet seldom realized: that if you have a lot of things you cannot move about a lot, that furniture requires dusting, dusters require servants, servants require insurance stamps, and the whole tangle of them makes you think twice before you accept an invitation to dinner or go for a bathe in the Jordan. Sometimes the Gospels proceed further and say with Tolstoy that property is sinful; they approach the difficult ground of asceticiѕm here, where I cannot follow them. But as to the immediate effects of property on people, they just show straightforward logic. It produces men of weight. Men of weight cannot, by definition, move like the lightning from the East unto the West, and the ascent of a fourteen-stone bishop into a pulpit is thus the exact antithesis of the coming of the Son of Man. My wood makes me feel heavy.

首先，它让我感觉沉重不便起来。财产确实能起到这一效果。它使人笨重，而笨重的人是进不了天国的。《圣经》中那个不幸的百万富翁并不坏，只是胖而已，他大腹便便，屁股浑圆，在水晶门内东挪西插想挤进去，肥嘟嘟的身体两侧被挤得到处青肿，却看见他的下方，一只较瘦的骆驼穿过针眼，织进了上帝的袍子。《新约》的四部福音书全把胖子与迟缓连在一起，指出了一个明显却被人忽略的事实，那就是拥有太多的东西必然会造就行动不便。有家具就需要经常抹灰，抹灰要仆人，有仆人你就得给他买保险。这许多事绞在一起，使你在接受赴宴邀请或如约前往约旦河沐浴之前，不得不三思而行了。有关财产问题福音书中有些地方还有更深入的阐述，其观点与托尔斯泰近似，即财产是罪恶的。这里面涉及的苦行主义令人费解，我也不敢苟同。但说到财产对人的直接影响，他们确实一语中的，财产让人笨重。根据定义，笨重的人不可能像闪电一样，迅速地从东移到西。一位体重14石的大主教登越讲坛，和基督的到来肯定形成鲜明对比。我的树林让我感到笨重不便。

③In the second place, it makes me feel it ought to be larger.

其次，它老让我惦记着这片树林要是再大些就好了。

④The other day I heard a twig snap in it. I as annoyed at first, f or I thought that someone waѕblackberrying, and depreciating the value of the undergrowth. On coming nearer, I saw it was not a man who had trodden on the twig and snapped it, but a bird, and I felt pleased. My bird. The bird was not equally pleased. Ignoring the relation between us, it took flight as soon as it saw the shape of my face, and flew straight over the boundary hedge into a field, the property of Mrs. Henessy, where it sat down with a loud squawk. It had become Mrs. Henessy'ѕ bird. Something see med grossly amiss here, something that would not have occurred had the wood been larger. I could not afford to buy Mrs. Henessy out, I dared not murder her, and limitations of this sort beset me on every side. Ahab did not want that vineyard--he only needed it to round off his property, preparatory to plotting a new curve--and all the land around my wood haѕ become necessary to me in order to round off the wood. A boundary protectѕ. But--poor little thing--the boundary ought in its turn to be protected. Noises on the edge of it. Children throw stones. A little more, and then a little

more, until we reach the sea. Happy Canute! Happier Alexander! And after all, why should even the world be the limit of possession? A rocket containing a Union Jack, will, it is hoped, be shortly fired at the moon. Mars.Siriuѕ.Beyond which . . . But these immensities ended by saddening me. I could not suppose that my wood was the destined nucleus of universal dominion--it is so small and contains no mineral wealth beyond the blackberries. Nor was I comforted when Mrs. Henessy'ѕ bird took alarm for the second time and flew clean away from us all, under the belief that it belonged to itself.

一天，我听到树林里传来细枝折断的声音，很不高兴。心想，一定是有人在采黑莓，弄坏了灌木丛。待走近一看，发现不是人踩断了树枝，是一只鸟，我高兴极了。嗬，我的鸟！可那鸟似乎并不领情，毫不顾及我与它的关系，一见我的脸孔，顿受惊吓，飞过树篱，停在一块田地上，惊恐地叫着。那块田是亨尼西太太的领地，鸟转眼成了亨尼西太太的鸟了。这可真是大问题，我的林子要是再大一点哪会有这等问题？我没钱买下亨尼西太太的田地，又不敢杀了她。这局限让我烦透了。亚哈本并不喜欢那个葡萄园----他是需要它使自己的财产更完整，用它设计出一个新的地形曲线。我想使自己的林子更完整，因此，林子周围的土地对我便是必不可少了。边界可以保护树林的完整，可是可怜的边界本身也需要保护。我常听到林子边界附近传来吵嚷声，还有小孩在那扔石头。边界向外扩一点，再扩一点，直至扩到海边。克努特多快乐！亚历山大更快乐！最后我甚至要抱怨，世界怎么成了财产的限制？我多么希望带有英国国旗的火箭可以发往月球、火星、天狼星和其他星星。然而，无边无际的想象终以我的悲哀而告终。我的树林不可能成为宇宙疆域的中心，它范围太小，除了黑莓，又没有其他矿产。亨尼西太太家的鸟在第二次受惊后，自管自地飞掉了，但那丝毫没有给我什么慰籍。

⑤In the third place, property makes its owner feel that he ought to do somethi ng to it. Yet he isn’t sure what. A restlessness comes over him, a vague sense that he has a personality to express—the same sense which, without any vagueness, leads the artist to an act of creation. Sometimes I think I will cut down such trees as remain in the wood, at other times I want to fill up the gapѕ between them with new treeѕ. Both impulses are pretentious and empty. They are not honest movements towards money-making or beauty. They spring from a foolish desire to express myself and form an inability to enjoy what I have got. Creation, property, enjoyment form sinister trinity in the human mind. Creation, property, enjoyment are both very, very good, yet they are often unattainable without a material basis, and at such moments property pushes itse lf in as a substitute, saying, “Accept me instead—I’m good enough for all three.” It is not enough. It is, as Shakespeare said of lust, “The expense of spirit in a waste of shame”: it iѕ “Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.” Yet we don’t know how to s hun it. It is forced on us by our economic system as the alternative to starvation. It is also forced on us by an internal defect in the soul, by the feeling that in property may lie the germs of self-development and of exquisite or heroic deeds. Our life on earth is, and ought to be, material and carnal. But we have not yet learned to manage our materialism and carnality properly; they are still entangled with the desire for ownership, where (in the words of Dante) “Possession is one with loss.”

第三，财产让拥有者老在捉摸应该对其做些什么，但却不知该做什么，他们为焦躁情绪所控，只是模糊地意识到，自己有某种个性需要表达出来。而这种意识----当然需要是清醒的意识而不是模糊的意识----正是艺术家的创造源泉。我有时想砍掉树林里还留着的树，有时又想在树林空处栽上些树。其冲动皆出于虚荣无聊，并非挣钱或为美化环境。这些冲动全源于我愚蠢的自我表现欲，源于我不知如何享受财产的无能。创造、财产、

享受，这三者在人的头脑中形成邪恶的三位一体。创造和享受都很好，但没有一个物质基础，均无从获得。这时，财产伺机挤入以图取代：“让我来吧，我一个就够了，我可以一个顶三。”其实并不是这样，它正像莎士比亚谈到贪欲时指出的，是“生气消耗在耻辱的浪费之中”，它“事前给个乐儿；事后，只是一场梦”。但是我们却无法躲避财产。我们的经济制度迫使我们必须拥有财产，否则我们就有可能饿死。心灵的某种内在缺陷，也逼迫我们占有财产。我们总以为财产可以帮助促进自我发展，培养优雅和英雄行为。世间的生活是物质的和世俗的，也应该是物质的、世俗的。问题是我们还没有学会恰当地处理这种物质性和世俗性，它们依然与占有欲纠缠在一起，但丁对此的描述是，“那种占有，是伴着损失的占有。”

⑥And this brings us to our fourth and final point: the blackberries.

写到这儿，我们该谈谈第四点，也就是最后一点了，即黑莓问题。

⑦Blackberries are not plentiful in this meager grove, but they are easily seen from the public footpath which traverses it, and all too easily gathered. Foxgroves, too---people pull up the foxgroves, and ladies of an educational tendency even grub for toadstools to show them on the Monday in class. Other ladies, less educated, roll down the bracken in the arms of their gentlemen friends. There is paper, there are tins. Pray, does my wood belong to me or doesn’t it? And, if it does, should I not own it best by allowing no one else to walk there? There is a wood near Lyme Regis, also cursed by a public footpath, where the owner has not hesitated on this point. He has built high stone walls each side of the path, and has spanned it by bridges, so that the public circulate like termites while he gorges on the blackberries unseen. He really does own his wood, this able chap. Dives in Hell did pretty well, but the gulf dividing him from lazarus could be travesed by vision, and nothing traverses it here. And perhaps I shall come to this in time. I shall wall in and fence out until I really taste the sweets of property. Enormously stout, endlessly avaricious, pseudo-creative, intensely selfish, I shall weave upon my forehead the quadruple crown of possession until those nasty Bolshies come and take it off again and thrust me aside into the outer darkness.

我这小树林黑莓不算多，但从那条横穿树林的小道上很容易看到，也就更好采集了。还有毛地黄----常有人在林子里拔毛地黄。一些好为人师的太太们，甚至刨地采毒菌，好在星期一拿到班上示人。另一些教养不佳的太太们，倚在男友的怀里，把地上的欧洲蕨弄得一塌糊涂。林子里到处散落着废纸和罐头盒。天哪，这还是我的树林吗？我是不是不让他人进入，才算是更完整地拥有树林？莱姆里吉斯附近有个树林也有一条公共通道，可它的主人在这点上毫不含糊，他在小道两旁垒起高高的石墙，石墙上架了若干小桥。这样，众人如白蚁般在小道上来回穿行时，主人在林子里大嚼黑霉没人看见。他这才是真正拥有了自己的林子，这个能干的家伙！《圣经》里的那个财主在地狱里表现挺好，那里，肉眼能穿过分隔他与拉撒路的鸿沟，看到另一边的一切。但在这树林里，什么也甭想穿透这两堵石墙。适当的时候，我也许会采取这一措施，垒墙围栅，品尝真正拥有财产的甜蜜。肥硕臃肿、贪欲无度、假充创新、极度自私，我要纺织一项由此四物组成的“拥有”的花冠，戴在头上，直到那些讨厌的布尔什维克们来拿掉我的帽子，把我扔到外面的黑暗之中

五、Free Writing

•On a psychological level, the story explores the inner world of a human being, the character’s confl ict with the established codes of conduct and her conflict with her own heart. Still on another level, the story shows how the past and present clash

and what a great impact the past has made on the present. It tells what it is like to live in the American South between the 1860s to the 1930s when the South had to digest the loss of the war and cope with its legacy in a changing society.

•The narrator follows a sequence of events not chronologically arranged and includes story details that contribute to our impression that Emily Grierson is an anachronistic (不合时宜的) woman who physically exists in the narrative present but psychologically lives in the past, in the old South. She lives a life clearly disconnected from the world outside her house (which is really her father’s house)•The killing of Homer seems symbolically at least to gratify a Southern community’s secret desire to revenge. Of course there is also other explanation: she loved him so much that she could not stand the thought he was leaving her.

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